Episode summary
Yieldstreet's Founder & CEO, Michael Weisz, on unlocking access to alternatives
Alt Goes Mainstream
· · Hosts: Michael Sidgmore · Guests: Michael Weisz
Summary
Michael Weisz argues that Yieldstreet was built around a simple thesis: private markets should complement public-market exposure, and individual investors deserve access to the same kinds of income-producing opportunities institutions have long used. He traces the company’s origin to his own experience in specialty finance and the 2008 crisis, which showed him both the appeal of esoteric credit and the emotional mistakes retail investors made in public markets.
He says Yieldstreet’s edge is not just product selection but customer experience and distribution. The company started with private credit because recurring cash flow could create “moments of joy,” helping investors see monthly distributions and build trust over time. He also says the firm deliberately fused finance and technology, using the Jobs Act, consumer marketing, and digital onboarding to make private investing feel seamless rather than opaque.
Weisz frames Yieldstreet as a one-stop platform for DIY investors, guided portfolios, and fully managed solutions, including advisor distribution through Luma and a broader push into structured notes, IRA access, and a future robo product for private and public alternatives. He argues that large asset managers like Apollo, KKR, Carlyle, Blackstone, and BlackRock are not the real threat; the bigger opportunity is building a portfolio-level destination that can package, distribute, and report on alternatives in one place.
Key takeaways
- Weisz says Yieldstreet’s core thesis is that private markets should be a meaningful complement to public stocks and bonds, not a niche add-on.
- He argues that private credit was the right starting point because monthly cash flow creates trust and repeat engagement for investors.
- He says Yieldstreet’s main moat is customer experience plus distribution, not just investment sourcing or technology alone.
- He expects the platform mix to shift over time from DIY toward guided and fully managed portfolios as investors and advisers want simpler solutions.
- He says the next big step is a robo-style portfolio for private and public alts, which he calls transformational and currently unavailable in the market.
- Weisz says liquidity, secondary trading, and IRA wrappers could expand the private-markets opportunity further.
Notable quotes
“We wanted to be the opposite. How do we create moments of joy”
“I would argue that there hasn't been a tremendous amount of innovation in fintech”
“What we're really good at is understanding who our customer is and what the experience they want”
“we're not in the business of selling you a deal. We're in the business of helping people build diversified portfolios”
“There is nowhere. Something major has to happen”
How the episode opens
Everybody gets a piece. We're going mainream. Everybody's going to eat.
We're going mainream. All my family sing. See you on mainream.
We're going mainream. From Wall Street to Melrose Avenue. We're going mainream.
venture capitalists to athletes to creators to the person who's collecting trading cards. We're going in a collision of culture and finance. We're going mainream.
Welcome back to the Alco's mainstream podcast. Today's episode is with a fintech founder who has scaled one of the larger private markets investing platforms for individual investors. Michael is the founder and CEO of Yield Street, a leading private market investing platform with more than 450,000 members and $4 billion invested as of October 2023.
An award-winning entrepreneur, he co-founded Yield Street in 2015 with an ambition of providing individual investors access to curated private markets assets typically reserved for institutions. As CEO, Michael leads Yield Street strategic vision to make alternatives a fundamental piece of investor portfolios. Before Yield Street, Michael held a variety of positions across the specialty finance spectrum, including founding solely Capital.
Previously, Michael was a vice president at a New York-based credit opportunities hedge fund with 1.2 billion under management. Michael and I had a fascinating conversation about the evolution of private markets and how to deliver investment opportunities directly to consumers. We discussed the business evolution of Yield Street, how they work with both individuals and advisers, and what he thinks is important when it comes to providing investors with access to private markets.
Thanks, Michael, for coming on the Alco Mainstream podcast to share your views on private markets. Michael, welcome to the Alco mainstream podcast. Thank you for having me, Michael.
I'm excited to do it. Pleasure to have you on. You've built one of the earlier and larger companies in the alt space.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- private markets access
- alternative investments
- fintech platforms
- investor portfolio allocation
- individual vs institutional investing
Companies and tickers mentioned
- Yieldstreet
- Soli Capital
Watch the episode
Watch “Yieldstreet's Founder & CEO, Michael Weisz, on unlocking access to alternatives” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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Alt Goes Mainstream, this episode and its artwork belong to Michael Sidgmore. Octagon is not affiliated with the show; this page is an independent summary.
